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Wow. Just wow. This goes to show. One can indeed teach an old dog new tricks. I have only spent the last almost half century in and around the Navy and never knew this. To this day, at least since the advent of calling cards, I get at least one phone call a week which invaribly begins; “Hey, shipmate, do you have a minute for me?” I always reply, no matter what I am doing; ”Roomie, I ALWAYS have a minute for you.” After all these years, I find that my old room mate has actually been degrading me. When he calls today I am going to hang up on him. And season football ticket renewals are due next week so it’s not too late to change my seats next to him which we have had together for the last 20 or so years.</p>
<p>I really believe that someone who sees this as degrading should perhaps cease looking backward as an individual and commence looking forward as a team player (read ‘shipmate’).</p>
<p>Honestly, this is one of the saddest comments I have ever read on this forum. Someone, after almost four full years, has actually totally trivialized the one single thing that makes USNA the great institution that it truly is. Plebe company singalongs must be a thing of the past:
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Never happen.</p>
<p>Let’s set the stage. Every June, more than 1200 individuals show up in Annapolis. They learn teamwork. They learn that the strength of the mightiest chain is only as strong as its weakest link. They learn to identify goals and work together to achieve these goals. They live together 24/7, all in the same dorm, and learn to totally depend on each other. Then the academic year commences. And guess what, they pretty much all TAKE THE SAME COURSES with all the same exams. Now the curve ball. All the instructors have not been through Plebe Summer. Some are not so goal driven. Some, usually the better ones which we remember fondly after all these years, have to be gently prodded back on course occasionally. Conversly, there are those who might actually on the first day of class list the goals of the course on the board. There might also be those who, concerned about tenure and needing a good showing from their students, might actually review by ‘teaching the test.’ The more savvy and goal oriented of students in some of these classes may actually have a very good grasp of exactly what is going to be on the final exam. Now, this savvy goal-oriented student is also a team player and shipmate. The night before the final exam, he pushes the solution to Theorem A across the desk to his roomie, who has spent the semester taking his pillow to class and says, “Learn this”. Low and behold. Guess what? Question 1: Prove Theorem A. Does he return to Bancroft Hall and buy his roomie a coke at the Steerage or does he turn him in to GoNavyXC for an honor violation? The rift created by any attempt to curb this very worthwhile and valuable practice will run deep. Some gouge sheets are obviously illicitly obtained. Some are created by savvy students actually attempting to help others. To misinterpret the source of either or an attempt to curb the latter will be disastrous.</p>
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What about 4? 5? 6? Anything less than 17? Are they all of equal importance? If not, will any effort by the training officer to emphasize certain ones at the expense of others, be construed as an honor violation. Sounds to me like the makings of a very boring very irrelevant training session. Since this is the Marine portion, what about the ex-Marine plebe who helps his roommates to study by identifying which of the 17 platforms are really worthwhile and which are useless and the test was actually conceived by someone of like mind. Will he be ostracized as a cheater or will he be lauded as a team player? All in all, a way too slippery slope. Honor is important, but at the expense of goal achievement and teamwork, not so much so.</p>